Affiliate Marketing for Dummies – It Is Simpler Thank You Think!

Affiliate Marketing for Dummies – It Is Simpler Thank You Think!

Have you heard of the famous “For Dummies” -series? They teach you everything between the Earth and the sky. One of their books is also called, “Affiliate Marketing for Dummies”.

In this article, I am not going to talk to you about that book but I am going to teach how you can make money with affiliate marketing online like I do. I have also many friends who use the exact same 4-step process for making money with affiliate marketing and it works very well.

Affiliate Marketing for Dummies – Video Explanation

I also created an educational video where I teach you the 4 simple steps for making money with affiliate marketing. Enjoy!

I also asked my friend, Rufat, to share his tips and thoughts for beginners who want to make money online with affiliate marketing. His tips are on quotes and the rest of the text is written by me (Roope) in this article. Rufat’s website is called YourIncomeAdvisor.com and he also teaches people how they can make a living online. Let’s start with the first question.

What Is Affiliate Marketing? – Simple Explanation

“Affiliate marketing is promoting someone’s product or service for a commission.” -Rufat

That’s what it simply is. Let me give you one simple example. I bought recently some vitamins on the website called iHerb.com. Then I did a Facebook post where I said that I just bought vitamins on iHerb and you can buy also. I left a link to iHerb to my post. Some of my friends (I don’t even know who) went to their website and bought vitamins also and I earned commissions for that.

Or have you ever read, “Best 5 smartphones for 2018”, “Best 7 hiking shoes for 2017”, “Canon x548 review” or something similar on the Internet? People are making reviews of products and they leave a link to an online store saying, “Check out these products on Amazon!”

Then you go to Amazon, order the product and the guy who left a link earns a commission. If you want to make money online with affiliate marketing it simply works like this:

Leave a specific link. (For example to Amazon)

Somebody clicks the link.

He buys a product. (No matter what he buys if he just went to Amazon through your link.)

This is a typical 4-step process of making money with affiliate marketing.

How Much Money Can You Make with Affiliate Marketing?

“You can earn from a few bucks up to thousands of dollars per month/day.” -Rufat

One of the greatest benefits of affiliate marketing is that there isn’t an income limit. When I was younger, I was a taxi driver. I learned a few tricks on how to find a shorter route or entertain people to get some tip but the income potential was very limited. I couldn’t earn more than 25€/hour ($30/hour) and I’m talking about the maximum. Normally it was only around 10€/hour.

Income potential is much better with affiliate marketing than a typical 9-5 job. (Read my full post by clicking the picture.)

With affiliate marketing, I don’t have a similar challenge. Recently I talked in an online marketing event with a friend who was making +$200,000/month with affiliate marketing. That would never be possible with 99% of normal 9-5 jobs.

Of course, that kind of income with affiliate marketing requires years of work and doesn’t happen overnight. Most people make less money with affiliate marketing (including myself) but it really shows the potential. I make good enough money but I have seen many people failing. I have recognized most common pitfalls why people fail to make big money:

Most people don’t even try/start.

They don’t have a step-by-step training.

They try it for a little while, don’t make money and quit.

They don’t want to try new things so they only make things that make them enough to live by.

Etc.

The key is just to start. I will support you hand by hand all the way to success.

Probably the most common reason why people don’t make big money with affiliate marketing is that they quit too early. It leads us to our next question:

How Long Does it Take to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing?

If you are a complete beginner, it may take a while that you start earning good money. I know some people who made their first income with affiliate marketing right away within the first week after starting but it usually takes longer to make good money like Rufat explains. It also depends on a little bit on what kind of strategy you are using.

“It really depends. Normally it takes 6 months or 1 year to start making money. But I personally made my first buck after 90 days of launching my website. Few people start making money within the first 2-3 months.” -Rufat

Some strategies can make you money during the first week but they don’t lead to a consistent income. On the other hand, other strategies may take 3-6 months but those build up your income like a snowball and over the time course, your income will exponentially grow.

Let me ask you a question:

How much time does it take to make money with a normal path? School – University – 9-5 job etc.

Most people go to a University for 3-5 years and they start making money after that. If you would commit 3-5 years for affiliate marketing like you commit to the University, most likely you’ll be making much more money afterward.

I went to a University of Applied Sciences and received a bachelor degree. Then I went to a 9-5 job for a while. However, I quickly realized that it didn’t make sense. I could earn much more money online and have more freedom than in a typical job.

I can work whenever and wherever I want.

I can make much more money online than with my 9-5 job.

I can travel around the world and go anywhere I want. (My current travel goes like this: Austria-Bulgaria-Turkey-UAE-Philippines etc.)

I enjoy what I’m doing.

This was just a dream a few years ago for me but now it’s possible. However, I usually prefer working inside than at the beach! 😉

If I will have kids in the future, I’ll rather teach them how they can make money online than go to a University. Of course, there are some exceptions like doctors but most people would love to make money online. When I explain the life I can live many people say they would like to live it as well. I’m always more than happy to help anyone who wants to learn.

What Is the Best Way to Earn with Affiliate Marketing?

“The best way is promoting digital products that pay up to 75% commission compared to physical products that normally pay up to 10%.” -Rufat

Rufat is right that digital products usually pay much bigger commissions than physical products. I’ve seen also a product that pays 100% commission for affiliate marketers. Then a company hopes that they’ll sell more products to the customer who bought the initial product.

Let’s take an example. You write to promote a book an Amazon that costs $20 and they pay you a 5% commission. You earn a $1 commission and you need to make 3,000 such book sales a month to make $3,000/month. Another person promotes a digital product that costs $200 and they pay him a 50% commission. He needs to make only 30 sales to reach the same $3,000/month.

People are also every year using more and more money on digital products so it’s a good idea to promote them. That being said, I know people who make good money also by promoting physical products. My recommendation is that you start with something that you are passionate about and most of the time money will follow. I know people who make only book reviews and they make much more money than an average person in the U.S.

Digital products pay usually highest commissions.

At this point, you may be wondering, “How can I find good digital products that I could promote?” This step-by-step training will teach you everything about that as well.

Best Tips for Beginner Affiliate Marketers

“I think the best 3 tips I can give for beginners in affiliate marketing are: Prepare to work hard and be patient until you make your first buck, make it a habit to learn new things from other successful affiliate marketers and take action on what you learn.” -Rufat

I really like Rufat’s advice. Like I mentioned above, one of the most important reasons why people fail with affiliate marketing is that they quit too easily. That’s why they never see the successful days. Sometimes the successful events are just waiting around the corner.

Another key is just to start and try new things. You can never know what affiliate marketing could bring to your life until you start. There was a good about good health and when you read half of the book and it says, “Put this book away, fall on the floor and see how many push-ups you can make. If you’re not going to try those push-ups, why don’t you just give this book away? It seems that you are not going to try anyway.”

So, the key is just to start!

How to Learn Affiliate Marketing Fast?

I talked with one of my friends about making money online and affiliate marketing. I asked her, “Why wouldn’t you learn to make money online?” She said, “Well, I don’t know how to do it. In addition, I don’t have any other friends than you who already do it.”

Actually, she was even a better position than when I was when I started. I didn’t know a single person who would make money with affiliate marketing online. I didn’t have any friends who could have taught me hand-by-hand.

However, I found a website called Wealthy Affiliate that taught me everything I needed to know about making money online with affiliate marketing. They had a step-by-step training, helpful community and tons of tools that helped me to move forward. If I got stuck, I was always able to ask more experienced people who helped me out.

Wealthy Affiliate has also taught +1,000,000 million other people all over the world on making money with affiliate marketing. One of them is Rufat who shared his knowledge in this post as well. As I mentioned above, I will give you my 1-on-1 support and help always when you need it. You can click the picture below to get started.

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Roope is the founder and creator of YourOnlineRevenue.com. He has created this website in 2015 to help you to create a successful online business.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us by leaving a comment below! We hope you enjoy!

12 Comments

I really believe that people can make a decent income through affiliate marketing. The steps are not very complicated and people can earn a lot just by changing their mindset and thinking strategically. Personally, I would love to try this so that I can earn additional income and maybe make it as my major source of income if I would just concentrate on it and take it very seriously.

Thank you for those wonderful ideas. It was nice dropping by this site and reading this informative article. It can help many people who aspires to be rich.

Nice thoughts! You are right that it really depends on the mindset. In my opinion, the best mindset for affiliate marketing is to think it long term. You can make big money but it requires time and effort.

Started affiliate marketing for more than a month now. I know I am still on the very very early stage. Frankly I am getting a little frustrated about this. Most of the videos and blogs that I have watched and read mostly leads to subscribing or purchasing products to them. I know that I have to invest somehow.

But with the critical financial status I am in right now, I am still in doubt. I am still on a search. Right now I started my Pinterest account with an affiliate link to it this is only 5 days old. Close my eyes , deep breath and pray a lot to get the right knowledge I require.

The truth is that succeeding with affiliate marketing requires work like anything else. Imagine that people go to a college for 3-5 years and then they start earning their first money. With affiliate marketing the process can be way faster but it still requires time and work.

If you need money fast, I recommend that you do freelancing jobs first. Making money with affiliate marketing takes time but the rewards are also greater than with freelancing, for example.

I was introduced to affiliate marketing in 2010. Currently, I am promoting affiliate products from amazon, commission junction and linkshare on my blogs and websites. However, I have failed to generate good income from affiliate marketing. I am still struggling to find out what is going wrong.

Affiliate marketing is easy to start but it requires consistent work to be successful. I have seen many people starting but they quit before they succeed.

There are basically two things that you need to master: 1.Traffic and 2.Conversions. You need to figure out how to get enough eyeballs to your site and then how to convert visitors into customers. I like generating organic traffic from search engines because it’s the most stable form of traffic.

Affiliate programs really are the most profitable ways of working over the internet today! The best part is that you do not need to create any product, just sell it! You also don’t need to have stock of products and much less employees! Congratulations for the article! I loved!

Affiliate marketing really is a pretty good way to make a living considering you are able to earn passive income with relatively less risk than you would had you set up your own retail business which would require a lot of investment in inventory. This way you could just leverage off of other people’s products and still make a good amount of passive income just using multiple streams.

The only downside, I suppose, is that a lot of people equate that with being much easier, but it’s just like any other job or business wherein you really need to dedicate a lot of time and effort to learn and discover as well as experiment.

Yeah, affiliate marketing is very easy to start. Anyone can get a link and share it to earn income. Once I bought vitamins and shared it right away on Facebook just to let my friends know. As a result I earned money even though I wasn’t expecting that to happen 😀

But of course, making big money with affiliate marketing requires lots of work and effort like any other kind of business.

Hello, my name is Roope Kiuttu and I am the founder of Your Online Revenue. I am a regular guy from Finland who travels around the world while making my living online. On this website, I am going to teach YOU how to make money online. You can get quickly started with this step-by-step training (20 FREE lessons available).